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About 100 people have called Laval police in the past week to report violations of the COVID-19 safety protocols, according to the city.
Police say anyone who sees a person violating safety protocols should call 911.
Police in Laval have had to hand out fines ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 for people keeping non-essential businesses open, gathering in public and engaging in behaviour that might help
spread the coronavirus.
“Priority No. 1 for us is just to warn people, just to let them know they need to go home,” said Geneviève Major, a spokesperson for the Laval police. “If they don’t obey, provincial
guidelines say we issue them a ticket. Failing that — and this is if they repeatedly engage in dangerous behaviour — we can arrest and detain them for obstruction.”
Major says there haven’t been any arrests related to the crisis.
There were 1,629 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Quebec as of Thursday afternoon, and eight people have died. In the past two weeks, the province has gradually locked down and is now only
allowing emergency and essential services to remain open, with severe restrictions on the number of people who can gather in a place at a given moment.
Two Montreal police officers are infected with the coronavirus , and another 100 are in quarantine. Major says there are no cases of COVID-19 within Laval’s police department, but that some
are under quarantine because they recently returned from abroad.
“We won’t be sharing specific numbers with the public, but anyone who tests positive or is at risk will be quarantined,” Major said.
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